This invention relates to pill dispensers, and more particularly to a pill dispenser for dispensing daily medication prestored for a week's period.
Many people, especially the elderly, are required to take daily medication. In most situations, the daily medication is prescribed for various times of the day such as morning, afternoon and bedtime. At each of these times, there may be more than one pill or tablet to be taken, and frequently there may be a variety of assorted medicines at each particular time period.
Many individuals, especially the elderly, get confused over the various types of medicines required to be taken at particular times. This can be especially confusing when each of the medicines are placed in a bottle and many of the bottles or containers are of similar color or shape. It becomes difficult to know exactly which medicines to take at specific times and such confusion can often result in dangerous results if medicines are taken at the wrong time or erroneous combinations of medicines are taken.
Another problem, especially with the elderly, is that they are often forgetful and therefore do not always remember if particular medicines were taken at prescribed times. Although the patient may be reminded about taking the medicine, after the prescribed time has passed the patient may be unaware whether the medication has actually been taken.
Of course, when a patient is under constant supervision, such as in a hospital or with round the clock nurses, the patient can be continuously observed and the medication be given individually. However, there has been continuous encouragement for patients to remain in their own homes with occasional visits by nurses or members of the social service to check up on the individual's well being. In such situations there is required some sort of apparatus which can assist the patient in knowing the proper medication to be taken and the appropriate times.
This problem also exists in nursing homes. Although there is regular visits and supervision by nursing home personnel, nevertheless the patients are substantially on their own and are often required to take medications in accordance with prescribed times of the day. It becomes a difficult situation to continuously send personnel each time medication must be taken in order to be sure that the patient properly takes such prescriptions.
Although there have been numerous suggestions for apparatus which will give reminders to patients as to appropriate pills to be taken, such apparatus have generally been most complex and difficult to manipulate. If the apparatus becomes overly difficult, the patient may not be able to manage the device and, accordingly, will avoid trying to get the medicine at the appropriate time.
Additionally, although there may be devices to provide reminders to the patient, there must be a way of checking that the patient has actually taken the medicine. Simply providing the pills in a dispenser and relying upon the patient to take it does not provide sufficient information to a nurse or social service worker that the medicine has actually been taken.
An additional problem with prior art dispensers is that the dispenser is generally one that is fixed at a particular location. While this may be satisfactory to those patients that cannot travel on their own, many individuals would like the freedom to be able to leave their premises and at the same time have the required medicines available to them. In prior art devices, each time a medication had to be taken it required the patient to return to his own premises in order to operate the dispenser so as to give him the pills required for that time of day.